**All applications require the virtual machine to use a physical CPU core for each virtual CPU. For example, if an application vm uses two virtual CPUS, then you will need two physical CPU cores for this vm. Only Cisco Unity virtual machines have a different requirement of using VMware CPU Affinity.

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**All applications require the virtual machine to use a physical CPU core for each virtual CPU. For example, if an application virtual machine uses two virtual CPUs, then you will need two physical CPU cores for this virtual machine. Only Cisco Unity virtual machines have a different requirement of using VMware CPU Affinity.

**If there is at least one live Unity Connection VM on the server, then one CPU core per physical server must be idle/unused (it is actually being used by ESXi scheduler).

**If there is at least one live Unity Connection VM on the server, then one CPU core per physical server must be idle/unused (it is actually being used by ESXi scheduler).

**The sum of virtual machines' vCPU cores may not exceed the total physical CPU cores on the physical server (less one if hosting at least one live Unity Connection VM).

**The sum of virtual machines' vCPU cores may not exceed the total physical CPU cores on the physical server (less one if hosting at least one live Unity Connection VM).

Introduction

This article provides specifics and examples to aid in sizing Unified Communications applications for the UCS B-series and C-series servers.

Application Co-residency Support Policy

All UCS tested reference configurations are sized for co-residency except for C210 M1 Tested Reference Configuration #1 (which is only sized to host a single VM of 7500 user capacity). Note that the tested reference configuration for UCS C200 M2 is sized for co-residency at a lower capacity per VM than UCS B200 or C210 so only supports a subset of Virtual Machine templates.

The max number of virtual machines supported per physical server depends on the hardware selected and the quantity and resource usage of selected virtual machine OVAs.

Rules for VM count per physical server and VM/application mix are the same for both Tested Reference Configurations and Specifications-based VMware Support.

To determine which applications may share a physical server, use the following guidelines:

Supported co-resident applications are "UC with UC only".

Co-residency of UC with 3rd-party application VMs - such as TFTP/SFTP/DNS/DHCP servers, Directories, Groupware, File/print, CRM, etc. - is not supported at this time. These applications may be placed on a separate physical server from UC. For UCS B-series, this can be an adjacent blade in the same chassis.

Co-residency of UC with non-UC VMs such as Nexus 1000V VSM or VMware vCenter are not supported at this time. These applications may be placed on a separate physical server from UC. For UCS B-series, this can be an adjacent blade in the same chassis.

All applications require the virtual machine to use a physical CPU core for each virtual CPU. For example, if an application virtual machine uses two virtual CPUs, then you will need two physical CPU cores for this virtual machine. Only Cisco Unity virtual machines have a different requirement of using VMware CPU Affinity.

If there is at least one live Unity Connection VM on the server, then one CPU core per physical server must be idle/unused (it is actually being used by ESXi scheduler).

The sum of virtual machines' vCPU cores may not exceed the total physical CPU cores on the physical server (less one if hosting at least one live Unity Connection VM).

The sum of virtual machines' vRAM (plus 2GB for VMware overhead) may not exceed the total physical memory on the physical server.

For supported DAS deployments, the sum of virtual machines' vDisk may not exceed the physical disk space of the physical servers' logical volume(s) (based on RAID configuration).

For UCS B200 and C210, you may otherwise mix and match applications, versions and OVAs (of any size) in any quantity as long as you do not oversubscribe any physical server resources as described above.

Up to four VMs: 1 to 4 CUC of various user sizes provided you don't over-subscribe any physical server resources as described previously.

Four VMs: 4 CUP 1000 users

Four VMs: 4 CUCM 1000 users

Three VMs: 3 CUCCX 100 users

Also, any CUCM VM may be substituted with a CER 12,000 user VM in the above scenarios.

See the Sizing Examples at the bottom of this page for examples of using these guidelines.

Redundancy and Failover Considerations

Application-layer considerations (such as Unified CM Cluster over WAN or Unified CCE Remote Redundancy) are the same for virtualized (UC on UCS) or non-virtualized (MCS 7800) deployments.

However, since there is no longer a 1:1 relationship between hardware and application instances, "placement logic" must be taken into account to minimize the impact of hardware unavailability or unreachability:

Avoid placing a primary VM and a backup VM on the same server, chassis or site

For failover groups, avoid placing all actives on the same server, chassis or site

Avoid placing all VMs of the same role on the same server, chassis or site

Note this example does not include non-UC applications (such as Cisco Nexus 1000V or Cisco Network Registrar) or 3rd-party applications such as customer-provided DNS / DHCP / TFTP servers, directories, email, groupware or other business applications. These applications need to run on separate physical servers and are not allowed to be co-resident with UC at this time. See the Co-residency section on this page for more details.

See below for details on the server layout and application placement at each site.

HQ server detail:

Branch A server detail:

Branch B server detail:

Sizing and Ordering Tools

The suite of tools listed below can assist you with the sizing, configuring and quoting of Cisco Unified Communications solutions on the Unified Computing System.

Cisco Solution Expert

Cisco Solution Expert assists Cisco field and Cisco Unified Communications specialized channel partners in designing and quoting UC on UCS solutions using the Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing or the traditional design model. Solution Expert delivers a Bill of Materials for the Unified Communications software and the UCS B-series Blade Servers and VMWare ordered as Collaboration SKUS.

Netformx DesignXpert

Netformx DesignXpert is a third party application used to design and quote the Cisco Unified Computing System B-series. DesignXpert has two advisor modules that can be used to quote a Unified Communications solution with the Unified Computing System:

UC Advisor – a designing and quoting solution used to quote Unified Communications software. The UCS B-series Blade Servers and VMWare ordered as Collaboration SKUs can be quoted when ordering separate from the Unified Computing System. Other UCS B-series components must be configured via UCS Advisor below.

Cisco Configuration Tool

Cisco Configuration Tool (need link here) is part of the suite of Internet Commerce Tools for managing online ordering of Cisco products. It enables you to configure products and view lead times and prices for each selection. The Cisco Configuration Tool, also known as the Dynamic Configuration Tool, is used to configure the Unified Communications products and the B series SKU and VMWare ordered as Collaboration SKUs.

Ordering Guides

Ordering Guides for Unified Communications System 8.x releases are available for Cisco sales, partners, and customers.